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Editor's Note: Thanks to our volunteer writers Michele Leacock and Sam Harris, we're starting to bring you exclusive news and stories from CCAS! Here's the first story. We hope you enjoy the exclusive features we'll be bringing you from time to time. Give Michele and Sam some love!

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BCNmultimedia Releases Children's Bible Comic Books for iPhone

By Michele Leacock for Christian Comic Arts Society

BCNmultimedia has announced 5 months of success in the App Store with their Children's Bible for iPhone and iPod Touch. The full color Children's Bible app tells the stories of the Old and New Testament in seven different languages and is the first comic book style Bible to be made available to iPhone users.

Children's Bible allows people to:

* Get a new, free episode of the Bible in comic every month.

* Buy content in 7 languages with the purchasing system.

* The content covers the most important passages from the Old and the New Testament.

* The Children's Bible uses a faithful transcription of the biblical texts from the Good News Bible.

"While it has become a common occurrence to see worshippers attending their churches with digital versions of the Bible on their iPhone's, up until now that was solely for the adults" said Toni Matas, publishing manager of BCNmultimedia. "We wanted to give the children something that was just as accessible while being entertaining as well."

Comic albums published so far:

* Land of Nazareth

* Roads of Galilee

* Streets of Jerusalem

* New Testament (includes the 3 comic books above)

* The Genesis

* The Exodus

* Kings and Prophets (scheduled release: June 15, 2010)

THE STATS

The app and its comic albums have been acclaimed all over the world:

* More than 95.000 downloads

* USA Top 50 since the first day

* Europe Top 25: France, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and Portugal

* South America Top 10: all countries

* Ranked in 62 countries worldwide

Device Requirements:

* iPhone and iPod Touch

* iPad

* OS 3.0 or later

Pricing and Languages:

* Children's Bible is available as a free download in the iTunes App Store.

* Available in seven languages: English, Spanish, French, Italian, Deutsch, Portuguese, and Catalan.

* Readers can purchase the complete comic books for $2, $3 or $5.

New formats on Amazon.com:

* Kindle Edition

* Paperback

LINKS

App Store Link: http://itunes.com/apps/childrensbible

Visit the website www.childrenbible.org.

When I was eleven I had a dream. No, it was more than a dream, it was a goal, a mission. My mission was to do comics as an adult. That is what I told myself what I wanted to do. And from that day I began to train myself to become the best comic book artist that I could be. I was determined to accomplish this dream.
Years passed and I never stop training as an artist and I held tight to the focus until I became a Christian in my early twenties. This was after a failed attempt to start a comic book company after high school and trying to find my place with God. In my mid-twenties God revitalize my desire to do comics and the eleven year old was at it again. This time it was for the Lord, to save souls. Ten years passed and after two publishers fell through and 300 pages later the dream was realized with Leeway Artisans. Even though it took a year to get it out due to printing, spiritual and financial setbacks. But the dream was realized, however the eleven year old had grown up and after so many years of struggle, good times and bad times, setbacks and life in general he forgot about the joy of doing comics. Yes, to reach goals you have to become disciplined and make plans and improve, but the eleven yeaqr old dream was to do comic books and that it.

If you are a believer and if you are following a dream, then you know the dream truly originated from God not you. God revealed that to me years ago. Of course I forgot or blacked it out. It's funny how God used comics to really help me growing up. I had some rough things happen in life, but superheroes never gave up through adversity. I learned that from Spider-man and X-men comics. I'm not joking. I was once asked what person influenced you the most that you admire. My answer was Uncle Ben(I was in a group of ten peopel in a bible study, the only person that understood my answer was a guy who also read comics. And if you are a long -time reader of Spider-man you would understand my answer also.) My father I believe tried his best, but he wasn't the best role-model and God used a fictional character to at least get by and know what a Father was until I knew our heavenly Father. What I'm saying, God works in strange ways. But he works-for our good-more for our good than his glory I believe.

With that, my dream was accomplished, I did my part , I kept the faith, worked on my comic and it is being published. The eleven year old boy should be happy. But he was corrupted. The years went by as a Christian and he held on to the dream as if it was his own. As if he made it happen and had to make it grow and flourish. He sowed the seed and thought he could make it come forth.

God told me to let go of the marketing and promoting of my comic awhile ago. I think I wrote about it in a blog too. I finally did and I'm screaming and kickng and angry at God. I feel it was my Isaac and now you ask me to let it go like that after the years and years of struggle, After the years and years of ridicule by family and friends Who now of course admire and respect me beacuse I didn't give up.THIS WAS MINE! THIS WAS MINE!

It's funny, giving up that part of my dream which I was never suppose to burden, I feel such freedom(when I'm not in a tantrum), I know the complaining in me will stop and I know it's better this way. My comic is not a business first, it's a ministry. And only God can build a ministry right. Not to say a business can't be Godly, because you have to also allow God to have that too. But in my case I can't approach it with a human business plan. I have to approach it in prayer, in trust and just doing my art. I feel free, though it's hard at times when you've been a slave for a long time. I'm learning to live not just survive.

The flip side, you may ask is the eleven year old laid to rest. No, but the corruption from age and bitterness is leaving him. Leaving me. I'm feeling the same innocence I had back then and yea it's scary at times but what dream and risk isn't.

The 2010 Phoenix Comic Con was far more than I expected. The con has been going for about 8-9 years. My research showed that it has been growing for the past several years. A vendor who I converse with at both San Diego and San Francisco highly recommended this convention. In 2009, the con garnered 7,000 attendees. I have noted that these comic book conventions, such as WonderCon and Phoenix, have been growing every year over the past few years. But nothing could have prepared me for the fun and energy that surrounded this con.

First, there were the crowds. Last year, the con was held at the Meza Convention Center in Meza, Arizona. Con organizers expected bigger crowds, so the venue was moved to the Phoenix Convention Center. First estimates have the crowds at 10,000, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the final tallies reach 14,000-15,000. The crowds rivaled that of San Diego and WonderCon. Aisles were jam packed Friday through Sunday. Even the Thursday preview night had a steady flow of traffic. The only major companies there were Wildstorm, Top Cow, and DC. And even DC, had almost an invisible presence there. I can almost guarantee you that will change in 2011. With the numbers that were present this past Memorial Day Weekend, Phoenix has now graduated to the big leagues. This convention will only get bigger and better in the years to come.

The next surprise was the number of Christians that not only came to the CCAS table, but had tables selling their materials. There had to be at least 35-40 people who came to the CCAS table and identified themselves as Christians. Many stated they didn’t know the CCAS was going to be there, some shared that they thought they were only Christians that were comic book fans. One husband and wife wondered if there was a monthly meeting of the CCAS in the Phoenix area. When we shared with them that there wasn’t, they offered their church as a meeting place for the CCAS. Another Christian asked what he could do to be active part of the CCAS. We got their information and hopefully this can lead to a monthly meeting of the CCAS in the Phoenix area. With the number of Christians that expressed interest, this could be a possibility. Many Christians were very happy that we were there sharing the gospel of Christ.

Brent Donoho, who is a professional illustrator, was a wonderful blessing. He prayed for us at the convention and he had dinner with us on Friday. We were also to meet “ning” site member Kevin Anderson and another Christian brother, Robert Miranda. The Christians that had tables at the con were Thomas Hall and Daniel Bradford of Blacklist Studios. They were selling “The King” and “R13” at their booth. There was Bryan Kilgore was sharing a booth selling his books, “Logos” and “bre bre & bj”. Then there was Pepe Melan selling “Watchman; Tales of Blood and Fire”. Joe King sold his book “Jimmy Jet” at the CCAS table on Saturday afternoon.

The CCAS was able to organize a “Spiritual Themes on Comics” panel for Saturday afternoon. The panel was hosted by Don Ensign and I, and the panelist were Tom Hall, Daniel Bradford, and Joe King. The panelist expressed themselves in an expressive and articulate manner. I believe them made a great connection with the audience. There were about 25 people in the audience. The discussions went well and there was a lot of interaction with the audience. The question/answer portion could have easily gone on for another 30 minutes. Don Ensign contacted people who were Mormons, Jews, and Buddhist and hopefully they will be on the panel for next year.

There was also interaction with people were not Christians. There was this one young lady who was 15 years, but her demeanor made seem much older. She was highly intelligent and being a middle school teacher, I could tell she probably had a high IQ. She didn’t have any religious conviction, but she talked with us and shared with us difficulties she was having at school and in her family. When she left, we immediately prayed for her and her family. As usual, the tracts were moving off the table and of course, the candy is always a way to get people to the table.

I arrived on Thursday afternoon (5 hour drive) and met with Don Ensign and Brent Hofstra. One vendor, who lives close to me, accused me of maybe breaking the speed limit, noting my 5 hour drive time. Needless to say I was deeply wounded by such an accusation. However, set-up went smoothly, except for the flat tires on the dolly. The table area was spacious and comfortable. Not as roomy as WonderCon, but definitely bigger than San Diego. The Thursday crowd was surprisingly large and active. We actually sold a few books that Thursday. After the show we had dinner at a TGI Fridays that overlooked the stadium where the Arizona Diamond Backs baseball team plays. It was a great view of the stadium and the food was good. We stayed at a hotel which was about a 20 minute drive from the convention center, and though it was a drive, we couldn’t beat the price for such nice accommodations. Don and I shared the room that came to about a little over $26.00 a night. We also had dinner at an upscale restaurant, and though they were a little pricey, my sandwich was outstanding. The three full days at the con were very, very busy. The only snafu came at break down when I had to get loading dock pass from the con organizer and not the dock foreman. But for a first convention for the CCAS in Phoenix, it went very smoothly. Lord willing, the CCAS will definitely be at Phoenix in 2011. It reminded me of San Diego 20 years ago. It was a refreshing experience. Continue to pray for the CCAS as the Lord continues to open the doors to us to be at these conventions to be a light.

You can check out photos from the convention in my album and on my page. Enjoy.

Today Elijah finished his first book, The Heart of the

World and was excited to share it with those he trusts at school. It is a story of good triumphing over evil and I was thrilled to see it! I hope to scan it and share it soon so that you can enjoy it and give him your feedback.

Last week we finally got a new pastor at our church. He's from Arkansas and his name is Adam Davis. Before he came we had had an interim pastor named Dr. James Shields, who is a teacher at Abilene Christian University, for about 11 months.

One of the things I'm really looking forward to is sunday night when he gets into things like apologetics and other things like that. He wants to mix things up on sunday and wednesdays nights so everything won't be so routine all the time. That would be a nice change in pace, I'm kind of tired of the same routine all the time.

In the meantime I may try to get the position of youth minister, because we really need one.

I've been working on a story for a long time...started as a short story and turned into a novel. It's called "Clouds of Thunder" and it follows the legend of the Thunderbird...from the past and in the present.

Smashwords.com is a new way to publish your works online for e-books and with the right format you could be part of their premier catalog and be available to iTunes, Amazon and more!

Anyway...please check out my book, there's a free preview of 50% of the story...hopefully you can afford the $2.99 to download the rest. Please leave comments for me...as a writer, this is my artwork.

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/13194?ref=bryanmero

God Bless,

Bryan

DarkNature by Titus Pannell

What if you found out that you weren't who you thought you were, and that your true existence was to bring about the end of mankind.This is the premise for “Dark Nature” which is an apocalyptic werewolf taleabout a scientist, named Titus Pannell, who discovers the dark truth about hisdestiny.

The epic begins when a mysterious scientist named Titus Pannell is captured and imprisoned in a top secret government facility, becausehe is found out to be a werewolf. The scientists there discover that Titus isharboring a new werewolf virus in his blood, which acts the opposite from theold. Instead of turning humans into wolves it transforms wolves into men, suchas the mysterious case with Titus. By the time the government realizes thisthere is a security breach. Both the blood samples and Titus are gone. The secretagency then sends out soldiers, known as “Hunters”, along with a transforming robotictank, called “The Dog Catcher”, to retrieve Titus. The team is led by aChristian woman named Hope Nevaeh. The agency, which is not Christian, uses thecross as a powerful weapon against werewolves. They think that the cross holdspsychological powers not real spiritual ones.

As Titus tries to elude the government he is constantly haunted by the memories of his dead fiancée, who he murdered afterhis first transformation. Titus tries to find a cure for his disease, but hefails at every turn. Titus is eventually found by the government and he isalmost captured until a mysterious group known as Fenrir saves him. It turnsout that they were the ones who orchestrated Titus’ escape, as well as stealhis blood samples. Their captain is a woman named Helen Kaufmann, who lookssimilar to Titus’ dead fiancée. It is her boss, who is currently stationed inthe Middle East, who has the answers to Titus’ werewolf origins. As both Titusand the organization try to evade the soldiers a civilian captures Titus’transformation on video tape. The footage is aired on national news stations,and the government tries to cover up the existence of werewolves by calling ita hoax.

Once Titus is able to make it overseas he meets with Fenrir’s leader, who reveals that the organization was originally a Nazi werewolf groupthat began in W.W.2. After the war the allied nations banded together to wipeout the werewolf threat from the face of the planet. The leader goes on to tellthat Titus’ origins involved an inhuman experiment conducted in Africa, andthat his blood is the catalyst to a new developing virus that will once againtransform humans into wolves. The goal for the virus is to bring about a biologicalwar, and cause a global pandemic. Titus tries to stop the Nazis but fails, and Israelbecomes ground zero for the virus.

The 2^nd half of the epic picks up 7 years into the future, during “The Great Pandemic”, when the age of man is eclipsedby the dawning of the werewolf era. 2/4 of the world is infected, 1/4 is dead,and the last remnants are barely holding on. The governments of the world issuemartial law. Fear and paranoia sweep across the planet, as people turn on eachother and kill one another on suspicion of being werewolves in disguise. Atthis time, the role of the main character is switched to Hope Neveah, who isthe leader of a Christian resistance. They believe that this end was foretoldin the Bible, and that the “Mark of the Beast” is the werewolf virus. Hope’smission is 2 fold. 1^st she is searching Titus to obtain a pure sampleof his blood, so that a scientist she is working with can find a cure. 2^ndHope wants revenge on Titus, because she blames him for the pandemic and thedeath of loved ones.

Leading the Youth Nation by Titus Pannell

What if you had everything you ever wanted, but you had to choose to give it all up for a divine calling that could save millions of souls. This is the premise of “Leading the Youth Nation”, which is a bizarre
comedy about a famous rock star’s journey from the concert stage to the pulpit
of a youth group.

Elijah Campbell is the 21-year-old lead guitarist of the mega-famous rock group “Abomi-Nation”, who gets charged, in court, on a D.U.I offense while defacing church property. For his punishment he is sentenced to 6
months of community service being an assistant youth pastor at the church. At
this time the church’s youth group is failing before Elijah arrives. Only 3
teens attend the Wednesday night youth meetings, which is led by a 96 year old
man. After Elijah arrives over 200 teenagers, who are his fans, join the youth
group, and about 50 of them attend regularly. Many of the clergy and lay
people, who are led by the outspoken 51 year old Ethel Conley, believe that
Elijah will be the down fall of their church, starting with the youth, but the
head pastor of the church believes that this could be a blessing in disguise.
The pastor hopes that Elijah will be changed by hearing God’s word, as well as
realize his responsibilities as a celebrity to the youth of our nation.

The twist in the story begins when Elijah pretends to become a Christian, so that he can get with the pastor’s daughter. The pastor, himself, attributes Elijah’s quick turnaround as an occurrence similar
to Paul on the road to Damascus, and almost everyone buys it except Ethel
Conley and her minions. At first Elijah sees this as one big joke until the 96
year old youth leader gets injured, and Elijah is asked to temporarily pastor the
youth. Things quickly become serious for him when he is told by a male youth
that if it wasn’t for Elijah preaching the word of God to him for the first
time he would have committed suicide. At first, Elijah attributes this to the
power of his celebrity influence, until he sees other teens as well as their
parents’ lives being changed because of God. Now, Elijah begins to find himself
struggling between really believing in Jesus, and accepting this new calling
into his life, or making his triumphant return to Rock n’ Roll.

In each chapter of the series Elijah is always in some new kind of adventure with the youth group. If it’s either a youth retreat, talent competition, doing a 30 Hour Famine, or organizing youth plays
there is always something going on, and someone getting saved. As Elijah is
doing all of this he beings to really fall in love with the pastor’s daughter,
because he sees her being different from any other girl he has ever met.
Problem is she still doesn’t give him the time of day. Plus, she is in love
with the church’s guitarist, Patrick. This leads Elijah to hold a “Battle of
the bands” charity fundraiser to battle against Patrick to win the heart of the
pastor’s daughter. Throughout all of these adventures Ethel Conley is
constantly lurking in the shadows trying to bring down Elijah.

About ¾ of the way into the story Elijah accepts Jesus as his personal lord and saver, and he fully realizes his responsibilities to the youth. His personality changes so drastically that even
the pastor’s daughter begins to take notice of him. The teens begin to feel the
power of Jesus’ love pouring out of the heart of Elijah so immensely that they
begin to minister about the love of God to teens at their school, and over a
thousand teenagers start coming to the youth meetings. This garners so much
press that a national youth rally is held and Elijah becomes the guest speaker.

Towards the end of the series Elijah’s 6 months are up, and the old youth pastor has passed away. The church has found a new youth pastor to lead the kids, but Elijah puts in his bid to stay as the new official
youth leader. A meeting is then held among the clergy to decide what should
happen, until Ethel decides to blackmail Elijah with a copy of a recording of
him confessing his hypocrisy. Elijah is forced to step down quietly from the
youth pastor position, so there won’t be a huge media scandal. The teens try to
get him back, but it doesn’t work.

Here is a listing of my appearances in support of my upcoming release, Eye Witness: Unknown God.*

6/4-6 Heroes Convention/ Charlotte, NC
http://www.heroesonline.com/heroescon/

6/11-13 Philadelphia Comic Con/Philadelphia, PA
http://www.wizardworld.com/home-pa.html

6/30-7/3 Cornerstone Music Festival/Bushnell, IL.
http://www.cornerstonefestival.com

7/14-17 Sonshine Festival/Willmar, MN.
http://www.sonshinefestival.com

7/21-25 Creation Northwest/ Enumclaw, WA
http://www.creationfest.com/nw/

8/19-22 Chicago Comic Con/ Chicago, IL
http://www.wizardworld.com/home-ch.html

8/28-29 Dallas Comic Con/ DFW, TX
http://www.scifiexpo.com/DCC/dallascomiccon.html

9/18-19 Project Comiccon/St. Louis, MO.
http://projectcomiccon.com/

9/25-26 Nashville Comic Con/Nashville, TN
http://www.comiccitytn.com/

10/1-3 New England Comic Con/ Boston, MA
http://www.wizardworld.com/home-newengland.html

10/8-10 New York Comic Con/ NYC
http://www.newyorkcomiccon.com/

10-29-31 Long Beach Comic Con/ Long Beach, CA
http://longbeachcomiccon.com/

11/6-7 Mid-Ohio Con/ Columbus, OH
http://midohiocon.blogspot.com/

11/12-14 Austin Comic Con/ Austin, TX
http://www.wizardworld.com/home-tx.html

12/3-5 Atlanta Comic Con/ Atlanta, GA
http://www.wizardworld.com/home-atlanta.html

Hope to run into many of my CCAS friends this summer/fall!

* All events are subject to change and more will be added soon!

R.J. Luedke
www.headpress.info

No thanks to me being sick, my 2nd and 3rd story of Modern Christians are being delayed. And one of my pens has dried up too so I am going to get a new one.

But lately I have gotten interested in trying to understand what the Muslims think and believe.

A couple of weeks ago I befriended a Muslim on facebook. And with every status update he put up, he seemed determined to disprove Christanity. Showing the flaws of Christianity, questioning and showing verses in the bible that look like "contradictions" Such as:

Paintings of Jesus go against the 2nd commandment, which is why we don't have any depiction of Muhammad what so ever.

Certain verses of Song of Solomon are pornographic.

God telling David that he was His son. Even called David his begotten son. And why wasn't David stoned like he should have been for having an affair with Bathsheba?

Why in his old age was David allowed to lie with a woman servant to keep warm, despite no sexual relations? ( I do have to wonder why couldn't his own wife Bathsheba do that?)

And theres many verses like that which Muslims use to show that what we believe is wrong, why Islam is the true way and much more.

In my last Facebook update, I mentioned I was starting to read the Quran, to get a better understanding of Islam and what the Muslims believe and why. And I thought I noticed so far that there seems to be a sort of negative, pessimistic tone. One of my other friends says she sees both the Bible and Quran as "negative and pessimistic" Then my muslim friend comes in and looks ready to ask me about Bible verses that seem like contradictions. Which was off topic to me about my status. It looked like he was just trying to start an argument.

A few comments in after trying to anwser some of his questions with the help of my study bible, I kindly say that it may take a while to anwser these other questions he has and that I am not looking for an arguement or debate about our beliefs. I was told in another Christian forum to back away from Muslims such as these which would cause division or hatered, which is what the Devil wants.

But would ilt make a good story for Modern Christians?

What if some of my characters met a few Muslims at their school? Some of them are friendly? A couple of others are determined to disprove Christanity using the same tatics and verses that were used on me and many others? Maybe a couple of my characters go in with the wrong Christian attitude and declare "We must prove the Muslims wrong!" My characters study Islam and the so called "contradictions" used against us and kindly try to show the Muslims what the verses mean. It could get into a serious debate.

The purpose of course wouldn't be to have some angry hateful debate but to inform, show what the Muslims believe, their attitudes toward Christanity and more. Though I could see my characters possibly giving up because maybe the Muslim who thinks he knows everything is pretty angry, has a sort of hatred in his heart against Christians.

What do you think?